⭐ Ejderha Sato ⭐

As 2023 concludes with today's lesson, it’s time to reflect on a year and a half of learning Korean! I am deeply and incredibly thankful for discovering Sato! While I began the year familiar with many words, now I can engage in basic Korean conversations. My proficiency in conjugating between past, present, and casual to polite tenses has grown significantly. Sato's teaching skills are evident; he gauges precisely when to challenge me and when to allow independent exploration. Whenever I struggle with a concept, his patient explanations ensure clarity. He will always keep at it until I have fully grasped the topic. His organized Google Docs of lesson notes are invaluable, and his commitment shines through—even when responding to late-night questions! Beyond language, Sato also adds invaluable insights into Korean culture and lifestyle. His meticulous attention to my pronunciation ensures I sound as authentic as possible. Truly a dedicated and skilled instructor! Thank you!

Another fun and very helpful lesson with Sato-sensei! I appreciate his patience and understanding when I forget vocabulary or make mistakes. And I'm super enjoying the pace and really am absorbing the new information well. I also enjoy all the cultural and language context that he gives as we go through the lesson. It gives so much more life and meaning to learning Japanese. I also found it very easy to study up on the previous lesson thanks to the Google Doc notes and organization.

sato-san and I had a good lesson discussing a festival I participated intl today, as well as proper ordering of adjectives in Japanese!

As another year studying with Sato San is finishing, I feel the need to write a proper review. A new year's resolution two years ago changed my life, I decided to try learning another language and shortly after discovered Sato San. Looking back after almost 100 lessons it is hard to believe we've come so far. Starting from scratch, we are now conducting class in almost exclusively Japanese. I am still far from proficient, but feel like I have an extremely solid foundation to build my intermediate level Japanese on. Sato San's style of teaching puts the ball in your court as a learner. The amount of information and study material he provides is abundant, its up to you as a student to study and apply. We have come a very long way together and I am very grateful as a student to have found such a great guide on my language Journey. We continue to trudge towards the metaphorical peak of Everest together. Sato San- 本当に　ありがとうございました

Someone couldn't control emotions -> 怒る As a reaction ー＞　腹が立てる その時は 子供だったから "Since I was a kid at the time" the その時は already does lifting here to express that this is in contrast to the present without actually having to also say 今は. 若いときは週末になればいつも朝まで酒を飲んでた Is a phrase that you could use to expressing having drank until mornings on weekends (て＋た　to imply a habitual thing) when you were young but, completely escaping ば／たら／と you could also modify the structure to be: 若い時週末にはいつも朝まで酒を飲んでた Which is a lot more compact and gets the point across quicker but requires that you process and understand quickly what the には is doing here in that it's indicating almost exactly "On the weekends when I was young" I still need to work out my understanding on には more to be able to comfortably pull out a sentence like this. Because I'm stil a bit confused for how it differs from は. 思い込む vs 信じる is the difference between just a regular belief and being convinced of something, to be absorbed in the belief.

A great lesson today! We talked about food delivery, long term care, and Starbucks in South Korea! We then started the new buddy ままで！いつも　ありがとうございました、サトさん！　また来週‼︎